One of the world’s top decor paper printing firms, the Schattdecor Group, closed the 2015 fiscal year with annual sales in excess of €600m, breaking the record mark set last year.

At a total of 14 locations, the Schattdecor Group processed more than two billion square meters of paper in the previous year, affirming its position as a dominant force in the surfacing sector. And while sales in central Europe and North America remained steady, the group did achieve positive trends in Asia and the Pacific regions, across southern and eastern Europe, in the Middle East and South America. For 2016, investment projects in the amount of €44m are planned.

With its focus on the decor industry, Schattdecor is planning to get digital printing ready for the market. The Palis 2250 single-pass ink-jet printing press, which was developed specifically for this purpose, is currently being installed in the main plant in Thansau. By the end of this year, it will be digitally printing decorative paper in widths of up to 2250mm with pigments identical to gravure printing – and at speeds of up to 150m per minute.

Schattdecor’s intention is for this installation to be a true alternative to the gravure printing process.

Over the last year, there has been new management installed in both Poland and Russia: Mirosław Wolski is now the new CEO of Schattdecor Poland. Previously, Wolski was responsible for the areas of production and technology at the Polish Schattdecor subsidiary. Tomasz Achrem and Jerzy Szejwian were new appointments to the board. Whislt in Russia, Jens Palmen has taken on the top supervisory role as general director. The other members of management are Vladimir Denisov and Dmitrij Kilimnik, who oversaw the construction project in Tyumen over the past three years.